Review of Zibra Open It! and Giveaway

It’s the holiday season and that means lots of packages to open. I think most everyone will agree that those sealed plastic clamshell style packages are the bane of society truly.  Opening those things I’ve tried scissors and have broken a few pairs over the years, the cheap plastic handled ones can’t handle it, they just snap. I’ve tried using a razor utility knife, not the safest approach obviously, but I learned the hard way by cutting myself with the blade, not fun. I’ve also tried to cut the package open a little bit and then try and tear it apart, but I’ve cut my hands on the plastic package. They just are not very easy to open at all. I understand they are for theft prevention, but when the customer can’t open them without getting wounded there’s a problem there. Fortunately for us a company called Zibra has created an inexpensive product to help us easily open these types of packages and it’s called the Open It!. Today for review that’s what I have, but they were kind enough to send me two of them, one for review and one to giveaway. So enough of my babbling, let’s get started…

Open It!

Easily opens sealed plastic packaging, toy packaging, boxes, CDs, DVDs, battery compartments and now bottle caps!

Cut it!
For cutting sealed plastic packaging, blisters, cardboard, paper…

Snip it!
For snipping toy packaging, twist ties, zip ties, straps…

Slice it!
For slicing boxes, CDs, DVDs, plastic wraps…

Unscrew it!
Open battery compartments and more!

Pop it!
Pop off bottle caps!

Price: $11.99

I’ll be honest here, originally when I heard of this product I thought it was fairly useless. I thought it was more of a gimmick product that might not be worthwhile, but I had to get one and try it out myself. Up there in the specs you’ll see the price is only $11.99, which isn’t bad.

The Open It! comes in an easy open package, it’s just a cardboard backing with a plastic front attached to it. On the back you’ll see a diagram of the Open It!.

Inside you’ll only find a brief user manual along with the Open It!

The Open It! feels nicely made, it’s actually fairly heavy, or heavier than I thought it might be. It looks like a pair of clippers  really. The handles are rubberized and overly wide for a good grip. The cutter blades are angled and they can be user as a bottle opener if need be. The right angle on the blades also helps to make it easier to open bulky packages.

In the middle of the handle is a lock that holds the handles together, they are spring loaded so they just pop apart. The cutter blades can not only be used for opening plastic packages but they can be used for things like cutting zip ties that are common especially in children’s toy packages. They can be used for cutting most anything you need to really, they work just like scissors and can cut paper easily.

The Open It! is more than just a cutter though, it does have some other tools built right in. One of the them is a screwdriver built into the handle so you can open things up like battery compartments.

The little screwdriver is both flat head and Phillips style so you can tackle most any job. The screwdriver part just pulls out and flips over to access the other tip style. The screw driver tips are pretty much the perfect size for battery compartments on most toys and other small gadgets.

There’s one other thing included as well and that’s a small utility knife in the other handle. When you flip the Open It! over you’ll see a push or slide.

To access the knife you just remove the cover and push to slide the blade out.

It should be noted that the blade does not stay out, you have to hold it to keep the blade out. Personally I’d rather have it able to lock out, but I understand why it doesn’t lock, it’s for safety purposes of course.
Another small issue I have is that I see no way to change the blade. I looked at the Zibra website and couldn’t find anything about replacement blades for the Open It!. It’s a razor blade so it’s going to get dull over time as any will, so how do you replace it?

I honestly went into this review thinking not much of this product, but after spending time with it and using it I found that it’s actually worth it. I remember when I first heard of the Open It!, and I thought it was just another gimmicky product from a company just trying to get money from people, but it’s not actually. The Open It! really is a great little gadget that’s very useful around the home or wherever. Toss one in your tool box or even in your glove compartment and you’ve got a great little useful tool at your fingertips.

Another great thing about this product is that my kids can use it to open their own things. Many times they’re asking me to open their packages or cut zip ties and oftentimes they’ll take my tools like wire cutters to cut zip ties. Sure I don’t want them using the razor blade part, but they can use the scissor part and the screw driver as well with no real worries about them getting hurt. The handles are big and rubber coated so they can handle them safely. it’s not ideal, but it’s safer than them trying to use a pair of scissors or grabbing a knife to open something if they can’t wait for me to do it. I know come Christmas morning this little product will be getting a lot of use at my house.

The blade issue is just a small one really, I think it should last for a long time with normal use like opening packages. Using it for everything and anything of course will dull the blade quicker. If you know how you probably could sharpen the blade with a file to get more life out of it too. I’ve done it many times with my utility knife blades, you can run them across a file to get a bit more life from them, and I’m sure the same could be said with the blade on the Open It!

The price is only $12, and that right there is the perfect price point I think.

On a side note here, above I linked to the main product page on the Zibra website but they also have a cute little website called ‘Wrap Rage Cure’ which is located at  http://www.wrapragecure.com/ so if you get the chance check it out. It’s got testimonials done in an entertaining way  and more information. It’s worth a look and they’re actually giving away three packs of Open It! (you get three of them if you win) for your testimonials!

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As I said in the beginning, I’ve got one to giveaway.

You want one? All you have to do is tell me what you think of it or how you think it could be useful to you.

Contest will run one week or until next Thursday December 9th

Contest is open to US Residents only.

Winner will be picked at random from the entries in the comments.

Also please share with your friends on Facebook or Twitter or wherever you want to so others can get a chance to win.

And for more Free Sweepstakes and Contest check out Sweepsadvantage.com

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CONTEST IS OVER:

Lynn Mills is the winner, please check your email for a message from me at kbrozio @gmail.com so I can get your shipping info

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